First Look: Katie Reus’s Targeted (October 1, 2013)

Former Marine sniper and current NSA agent Jack Stone has a new face to go with his new identity. But he still has the same tortured memories—which include the woman he let get away years ago, when they were teenagers. Now his new assignment in Miami will put him so close to the woman he’s never been able to forget, he could reach out and touch her—if only she weren’t under suspicion.

When Sophie Moreno uncovers evidence linking the medical supply company she works for with arms smuggling—and worse—she doesn’t know who to turn to. After a shocking betrayal, she realizes the only person she can trust is a mysterious new person in the company—a man with hauntingly familiar eyes.

As Sophie questions her intense attraction to this man and Jack struggles not to blow his cover, the two of them must race against the clock to stop terrorists from killing scores of people—starting with them.

In the first book of her new Deadly Ops series, Targeted, Katie Reus introduces Marine sniper Sam Kelly. But he's not Sam Kelly anymore; the NSA approaches Sam with an offer to leave the Marines and join them, and all he had to do is become someone else. Sam doesn’t hesitate before accepting. As a child, Sam had been tossed from foster home to foster home. He has no family. The only person Sam ever loved was another kid in the foster system, Sophie Moreno. While he could, he protected Sophie from harm and dreamed of creating a life where they would be together forever. But the hard life of a foster kid destroyed any future for Sam and Sophie. Sam lost the only person who ever mattered to him and he welcomes the chance to become someone else.

For five years, Sam Kelly—now Jack Stone—has taken any assignment that his boss has tossed his way, no matter how ugly or how dangerous. But Jack would do anything to walk away from this one. Jack’s boss wants him to investigate Sophie Moreno, and find out if she is involved with a smuggling ring.

“Is that going to be a problem?”

Yes. “No.”

“She won’t recognize you. What’re you worried about?” Wesley folded his hands on top of the desk.

Jack might now wear a different face, but from the moment Sophie meets Jack she is hit with an overwhelming feeling of recognition and she doesn’t understand why she trusts Jack so much. Her head tells her she just met him, but something inside whispers that Jack would never hurt her. The only person Sophie ever truly trusted was her first love, Sam, but he’s dead.

He had pale bluish gray eyes she’d never seen on anyone before except…Sam. Eyes with the seemingly endless depth of the unforgiving ocean. So deep she could drown in them. She wanted to look away, but couldn’t even pretend not to stare. And he was definitely looking back. Watching her with a mix of curiosity and something she couldn’t begin to define.

Although Sam’s death was hard on her, Sophie hasn’t dreamed of Sam as much as she has since Jack walked into her life. What is it about Jack that calls to that place inside her where only Sam could reach?

His voice was low and sensual. It rolled over her with the subtlety of a tidal wave, sending unexpected shivers to all her nerve endings. What was it so familiar? It reminded her slightly of Sam, but it was deeper, more masculine. Like what Sam would have sounded like if he’d been allowed to grow up fully.

Someone is trying to silence Sophie and Jack will do anything to keep her safe. Yet the more time Jack and Sophie spend alone together, the harder it is for Jack to keep his secret from Sophie. Not even a new face can obscure his true self from the one person who loved him once, and who might just be falling for him again.

He got this little smile when he looked at her, as if he was remembering something. She wondered if he was even aware he was doing it. Damn it, the look was so…familiar that it jarred her straight to her core. Combined with the way he’d called her Soph in the truck earlier, it put her on edge. More and more he was reminding her of Sam.

Jack might have tried to become someone else, but can he hide behind another face so well that the one person who knows him best in the world can’t unmask him?

Learn more or pre-order a copy of Targeted by Katie Reus (out on October 1, 2013):

Lucy Dosch writes book reviews for her blog http://ebookobsessed.com. Her e-reader has turned her love of reading into an obsession. When she is not reading, she likes to spend time with her husband and two daughters.